MSc M.J. van den Toren

Having researched how Pentecostal imaginaries and practices of peace emerged out of a (historical) Pentecostal revival and a history of violence, for my research master’s at Utrecht University, I now research Latin American Pentecostalism closer to home. I research how lived theologies of the Holy Spirit and the demonic – through the perspective of Latin American Pentecostal communities – engage with the public sphere in Spain. Pentecostal and Charismatic communities increasingly engaged with the public sphere in Colombia (and Latin America), perceiving and engaging with the public sphere through notions of the Holy Spirit and the demonic. In Spain, Latin American Pentecostal communities are also increasingly stepping into the public sphere through public religious practices, foodbanks, and even political advocacy. I’m interested in discovering how political realities are challenged and how political agency is grasped, by immigrant communities, through Pentecostal idioms and practices surrounding the Holy Spirit and the demonic.